Dear Friends,
Phew, the world has certainly changed since my exhibition last year. On some intuitive level I knew it had to get done last year… I felt compelled by some inner need to ensure finality. This time last year I was madly planning how to complete it all. Bruce said I should postpone. No way!
As I forged ahead, I learned that curating my own show was a mammoth task and took an enormous amount of energy. But, the energy of the universe did seem to be flowing and allowed it to happen.
I can’t believe now that it all came together and that I managed to get it done. In fact, it worked out better than I could have hoped.
The space was made for the exhibition. The accompanying yoga cards that accompanied the exhibition were a big success, despite some teething problems with the printers. We are investigating an ongoing, online platform retail solution. I will keep you posted, but in the meantime, anyone can contact me should they be interested in buying a set. Covid has slowed many elements of life down, but some things like online yoga are flourishing and we think this momentum will continue.
I received inspired advice about preserving the exhibition virtually in its full capacity, so it is now loaded onto my website and can be viewed anytime here - anyone who missed the show or would like to revisit it can do so anytime.
There are paintings and prints still available for sale. Initially, I made prints available at A3. Since then I have printed the “Dandelion Breath“ to the original painting size so that edition, for example, is in a larger format. If you are the first person to request a print of a painting, you get to decide the format size of that print edition.
After working on one concept for the last ten years, it’s been lovely to have a change and I am enjoying exploring new ideas. Before lockdown was announced I had stretched four canvasses on lovely Belgian linen and got going on some new work in my Woodstock studio. We moved to our farm for lockdown so initially it took me a while to get my space sorted and find some momentum, but I eventually got into a working rhythm in my farm studio. I haven’t been able to go into my Woodstock studio for months… and I miss the space but have settled into this new farm routine and have started exciting new work.
I am working on the relationship between internal and external realities of the same subject matter, starting with a lovely Overberg landscape. The feeling of expansive space here has been balm and a crucial antidote to lockdown. As we are naturally so isolated it also doesn’t feel too different from what it normally feels like being on the farm. The main difference is that we have not left the farm to go backwards and forwards to Cape Town. Our biggest excursions are to buy milk at the nearby dairy and a shopping trip about every ten days…
Painting doesn’t always get a look in as there always lots of things to get sorted on the farm.
We have had our time filled with DIY, planting, roof maintenance and fixing our greenhouse. I have never cooked so much in my life! Some underutilised skills have been honed and I have some delicious recipes at the ready.
I have loved doing frequent online yoga classes several times a week and that has been a lovely adjunct to completing the yoga training course I graduated from early this year. Not sure where that is taking me yet or when I will teach my own classes, but so much is unclear that we really just take each day as it comes and have to have faith that we are exactly where we are meant to be right now.
Trusting you are all well and finding your way in these interesting times. They are a challenge to our inner being, but we are certainly learning as we go. I recently heard this saying:
Happiness is a state between having too much and too little.
I think we have all been aware of this during lockdown and have all had to look at what we value and how we need to help those who surround us who are less fortunate. It is also about our gratitude for own blessings.
Wishing you all trust, clarity and kindness as you navigate forward without fear and anxiety.
Please contact me if you are interested in any works. I am, as always, open to discussing payment plans on both paintings and prints.
Lots of Love,
Pen
